VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH: NESN strikes out with Remy

Friday

Apr 4, 2014 at 10:53 AMApr 4, 2014 at 11:09 AM

To a baseball purist, there are very few moments as special as attending opening day at Fenway Park. However, as exciting and alive as the day is for the fans we shouldn't forget that for the owners, Major League Baseball is a first and foremost a business. This is why I am astonished by the Red Sox's decision to retain Jerry Remy as the team's TV analyst

John McSheffrey

To a baseball purist, there are very few moments as special as attending opening day at Fenway Park. However, as exciting and alive as the day is for the fans we shouldn’t forget that for the owners, Major League Baseball is a first and foremost a business. This is why I am astonished by the Red Sox’s decision to retain Jerry Remy as the team’s TV analyst

The Fenway Sports Group which owns the Red Sox and the broadcasting entity, NESN are tremendously savvy businessmen. In the roughly 12 years since the group purchased the team they’ve brought three World Series Championships to the city of Boston and produced billions of dollars in revenue for themselves and the array of businesses who aligned themselves with the team.

Yes I typed billions, which is why it seems illogical that the same folks who’ve convinced us to buy bricks, $5 bottles of water, pink hats, memberships to ‘Red Sox Nation’ and tickets to concerts with poor sound and sight lines would jeopardize their positive cash flow by having someone who’s become such a polarizing figure to represent their brand on television.

In case you are unfamiliar with the back story; Jerry Remy, the one-time second baseman for the Boston Red Sox has been doing color commentary on NESN for close to 25 years. During that time, Remy’s good fortune has climbed right along with the Sox, that is until last summer when his son Jared was arrested for murdering Jennifer Martel. At that point, the media personality of Jerry Remy began to slowly peel away exposing the chaotic personal side of Remy.

As the details of Jared Remy’s violent history emerged, so did a picture of parents supporting and enabling a son who was a drug-using bully whose path of violence against women led to his being accused of the beating death of a young woman in front of her child.

Let’s be fair, the misfortune of a child does not necessarily mean poor parenting. There are plenty of situations where parents try their best to help a child only to watch that child spin further and further out of control. Many who are standing by Remy want to assume that this is the case, but unfortunately the behavior of Jared is not the exception in the Remy household it’s the norm.

In the past five years, the Remy’s two other grown children have also been arrested for acts of violence; three children, three significant arrests. Jared’s brother was arrested for sexually groping a woman in a bar and his sister arrested for amongst other things; assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and resisting arrest by kicking a police officer in the groin.

When one child exhibits violent tendencies it’s easy to look at it as ‘nature over nurture’. When all three exhibit violent tendencies dismissing the nurture aspect becomes a reach. Somewhere along the way, the Remy children got the sense that violent behavior was an acceptable quality.

Let’s circle back to the Red Sox. Fans care about what happens between the white lines, owners care about what happens to the bottom line. Public opinion matters greatly to the Fenway Sports Group as every additional viewer to a Sox game means a higher rate NESN can charge per advertising spot; conversely, even the smallest drop in viewership results in reduced advertising revenue. A swing of a few percentage points could be the difference in millions of dollars.

Dollars are the reason why I am truly stunned that the Sox and NESN have opted to keep Remy. It’s a very good thing for the Sox when people are actively debating who should be the starting center fielder on the team; it’s another when they are debating Jerry Remy’s culpability regarding a murder allegedly committed by his son. Over the past month the debate has taken center stage on the airwaves, in the papers and on the Internet. Camps seem to be evenly split on the issue with very little middle ground, making Remy a highly polarized figure. For the record, I strongly question if Remy’s Boston supporters would be so adamant if he was working for the Yankees.

How is it that a business built on creating passion and whose valuation hinges on maximizing interest is willing to back someone who has (like it or not) become a symbol for domestic violence? I honestly don’t know.

I am diehard Red Sox fan, a season ticket holder who loves going to Fenway and if I am home I rarely miss a game on NESN. Over the years, I have found sitting back on the couch and watching the game to be a relaxing escape from the craziness of day-to-day life. Not so anymore. NESN no longer provides a pleasant distraction; rather listening to Remy is a constant reminder of what is wrong in life.

Earlier this year NESN reassigned Red Sox sideline reporter Jenny Dell because she’s dating and living with Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks. Somehow NESN determined that being in love is more offensive that being associated with domestic violence and murder.

So what does this all have to do with Cohasset? Well besides the fact that my couch is in Cohasset I guess the answer would be simple human decency impacts us all. I am conflicted in my feelings towards Remy, sometimes feel bad for the situation he’s in, other times I feel he’s an enabler. However every time I hear him, I think of a murdered woman and that is just not the association one wants when watching a ball game. You’d think that the savvy folks in the Fenway Sports Group would have figured that out.

As always, thanks for reading and until Jerry departs from the booth, I’ll be listening to the Sox on the radio.

John McSheffrey has been part of the Cohasset community since 2007 and can be reached at jjmcs@aol.com